A Windows to Help You Forget — In just two weeks, on Oct. 22, Microsoft's long operating-system nightmare will be over. The company will release Windows 7, a faster and much better operating system than the little-loved Windows Vista, which did a lot to harm both the company's reputation …

Quickly view formatted PDFs in your search results — Google search results sometimes include documents that were not originally formatted to be viewed in a web browser, such as PDFs. In the past, the only way to view these documents was to download them and open them in a separate viewer application.

Introducing Search Options for mobile — Finding the exact information you need sometimes requires filtering and refining your search results. Earlier in the year, we launched a collection of tools called Search Options which enable you to easily and quickly do this from a computer.

Microsoft mulling 128-bit versions of Windows 8, Windows 9 — Believe it or not, Windows 7's successor(s) have been in the planning and early development stages for a while now. We haven't posted anything about any of them yet, but we've been watching closely to see if anything really interesting turned up.

It's My Browser, and I'll Auto-Click if I Want To — Free file hosting provider MediaFire seems to think that, when you follow a link to download a file from its service, it has the right to control your browser. This is yet another example of a web site owner forgetting that it's your computer …

Google: We're Hiring, and Spending, Again — Google CEO Eric Schmidt used the opening moments of a New York City press conference to reinforce a message he's been delivering for a couple months: The worst is over, things are looking up, and Google is spending accordingly.

Ozzie on the realtime wave — In June, I spent several days on the Microsoft campus talking with Microsoft executives about the impact of realtime and the emerging era of cloud computing. My conversation with Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie began with a discussion of the recently unveiled Google Wave …

Join the Minimalist Google Homepage Prototype — You might have heard of the new experiment Google is running for its homepage, showing only logo and search box (and apparently search buttons, at times) unless your mouse moves over the page. To join this prototype, you can go to google.com …

There is no WebKit on Mobile — Last week I spent a lot of time on WebKit in order to produce a comprehensive comparison of all WebKits. My purpose was to prove there is no “WebKit on Mobile,” and to gain some more insight in the complicated relations between the various WebKits.

Cisco becomes a major Linux server vendor overnight — In the battle for supremacy among the software industry's Big Four, Cisco may be placing the biggest bets and angling for the biggest returns. Some still think of Cisco as a networking hardware vendor, but hardware is simply Cisco's beachhead …

Google's Abandoned Library of 700 Million Titles — Imagine a world where Google sucks. — It might seem a stretch. The Google logo is practically an icon of functionality. Google's search engine and other tools are the company's strongest, if unstated, argument in favor …

FBI head banned from online banking after phishing attempt — SAN FRANCISCO—No one is immune from cyberthreats, not even the head of the FBI. — FBI Director Robert Mueller was banned by his wife from doing online banking after he nearly fell for a phishing scam, he said on Wednesday during …

Google's vision of journalism's future — Despite its non-journalistic approach, Google's latest tools could revolutionise both the experience and production of news media — Google's search algorithm works on a simple principle: on the web, sites link to other authoritative sources …

Dell to Build Android Phone for AT&T — Dell Inc. expects to launch a smart phone on AT&T Inc.'s cellular network as soon as early 2010, said people briefed on the plans. — The Dell phone uses Google Inc.'s Android mobile-operating system, said the people briefed on the matter.

Google Offers A Proposal To Make AJAX Crawlable — It's one of the most common pieces of SEO advice you'll find: Don't build your web site with AJAX if you want it to be crawled and indexed by search engines. AJAX-based web sites are essentially a locked and bolted door when a spider comes crawling.

Royal Mail loses Amazon contract as postal strikes loom — Threat to deliveries forces major client to pull plug on £25m deal — Royal Mail has lost a crucial contract with its second largest customer, the online retailer Amazon, as a wave of strikes threaten parcel deliveries in the busy pre-Christmas sales period.

Online ads: Big Brother or customer service? — NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. marketers and consumer advocates are preparing for battle over the rules governing online advertising tailored to individual browsing habits, often tracked and collected without notice or permission.

Yes, Rock Band is coming to iPhone. Here's proof. — A few weeks back, we got a press release from EA's PR company. It was tucked within an attachment titled “Rock Band Verizon iPhone Fact Sheet_V3.docx”. As if seeing “iPhone” behind “Verizon” wasn't strange enough …